“She’s not here.”
“Thanks for the observation,” I snatch a piece of paper off the table and read it, ignoring his leering eyes. Then I read the paper again. Then again. Then I drop it.
“What’s it say? Did she go for a walk?”
“She left.”
“What?”
“She left. She left me. She left the pack.” My heart feels heavy as the words she wrote begin to sink in. She left.
Things got hard and Red left.
Congratulations to Tessa, I suppose. She left me. Red really did get chased away.
“You’ll get her pack.” Ryder sounds more confident than I feel. Red has been through hell and back again. It shouldn’t surprise me that she walked away so quickly, but it does. And it hurts.
“We need to find Tessa and Lex,” I say, taking a deep breath.
“Nash, you need to talk about this.”
“No. There will be time for talking later. Right now I need to take care of something I should have taken care of weeks ago.”
“You couldn’t have known. None of us knew.”
I don’t think Tessa would physically hurt Red, but I also didn’t think Tessa had it in her to hurt the pack, and to take things so far that she was stealing? Who the fuck is she? I don’t know how things are going to end today, but I do know they’re going to end today.
Ryder and I stride out of the room and I slam the door shut to my suite. The sound echoes in the caves, but I ignore it and head to the common area. Several wolves are lurking around. A few parents are holding kids and looking distraught. I’m guessing they just heard about the childcare center and they’re scared.
I whistle loudly and every set of eyes looks up at me.
“Outside in five. Pack meeting. Tell everyone. If you have kids, Aunt Germaine or Mrs. Beaver will watch them. I want everyone present.”
I turn without waiting to see if my orders are followed. They sure as fuck better be. Ryder is close behind me and we head outside of the caves. The rain has finally stopped, but the earth is
muddy and wet. Stripping off my clothes, I make my way to an area just outside the caves. It’s where I challenged Jeffrey weeks ago and it’s where I’m going to fucking challenge Tessa and Lex today.
“No matter what happens,” I tell Ryder. “You find Red. You take care of her.”
“You can do this,” Ryder says automatically. I love that he has so much confidence in me, but that’s not what I need right now.
“Promise me. No matter what happens.”
“I will find your mate and guard her with my life,” he tells me. “On my honor.”
Soon the wolves begin to come outside and they gather around me in a circle. More and more arrive until the only two missing are Lex and Tessa.
“Where are they?” I growl. “Where are Lex and Tessa?”
“Are they the ones responsible?” Jam asks, looking surprised. I nod sharply. He looks sad, but I can’t think about that now. We’re all feeling a lot of emotions. While human men are often taught to guard their emotions and stay calm at all times, wolves don’t have that same draw to emotionless behavior.
We feel very deeply, very strong, very often.
Jam looks like he’s been betrayed. He and Lex weren’t close at all, but they’d been spending some time together. I get the feeling he feels like he was tricked or used, neither of which are good emotions to be feeling before a big event like the one we’re about to experience.
I doubt most of the pack even realizes I’m about to fight with Lex and Tessa. They don’t know we’re going to be fighting to the death today.
They wanted to try and take my pack, but now they’re going to see what happens when someone does that.